The price of butter is a hot topic in Poland right now, with headlines about butter prices dominating. It is no surprise when butter prices, already extremely high, jumped 5 percent in just one week this month. However, other products are also sky-high in terms of prices, with the shopping app PanParagon showing soaring chocolate prices, just in time for the holiday season.
“Chocolate is an inseparable element of St. Nicholas Day and Christmas. In the first half of December 2024, chocolate sweets were purchased almost four times more often than in July this year,” Antonina Grzelak, a representative from the PanParagon shopping app told Business Insider.
In November 2022, a 100-gram bar of chocolate with nuts cost 4.99 Polish zlotys (€1.17), while the median price this year is 8.99 Polish zlotys (€2.11), representing an 80 percent increase. There have been less stark increases for a pure milk chocolate bar, at only 37 percent in two years, but for cash-strapped Poles, the price increases are steep.
Compared to just one year ago, milk chocolate has jumped 60 cents while chocolate with nuts has jumped 2 zlotys.
Poles overwhelmingly favor milk chocolate, which accounts for 45.9 percent of all chocolate sales, while dark chocolate makes up 16 percent of chocolate sales. Chocolate with nuts only accounts for 12.5 percent of chocolate sales, while other chocolates, such as boxed chocolate, chocolates with filling, and dessert chocolates make up smaller shares of the chocolate market.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk reinstated VAT tax on food products in March of this year. The previous conservative government (PiS) had removed the VAT fee, reducing it from 5 percent to 0.
However, Poland is not the only country experiencing a surge in chocolate prices. As Investopedia notes, “What analysts are calling the ‘chocolate crisis’ of 2024 isn’t just about sugar-rushed kids eating too much holiday candy near bedtime. Cocoa, the essential ingredient in chocolate, is experiencing an unprecedented price surge that threatens to transform the global confectionery market. Prices have soared to almost $9,500 per metric ton in 2024—an almost 50 percent increase in the last three months and more than double a year ago.”
